Leroy

There’s a story that says more about Leroy’s determination and devotion to his music than any promotional copy ever could. It takes place way back in the day-say, 18 years ago-when a 10-year-old Leroy had just finished his second guitar lesson. As the teacher began packing up his music books, Leroy turned to him and said, “I wrote a few things since the last time. Can I play them for you?”
The instructor looked at him with amusement, sat down, folded his arms and said, “Sure, go ahead. Show me what you’ve got.” Young Leroy-who had his first lesson only the week before-proceeded to play four original songs. When he finished, he looked up to find his teacher staring back at him, mouth agape. “Man, he freaked out,” Leroy laughingly recalls. “He jumped up, grabbed the phone, called my father and said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t stop this boy from playing music.’” Not that anyone could.
Years later, Leroy continues to floor audiences with his melodic gifts and passionate play. On his confident, self-titled Hollywood Records debut, he emerges fully formed, an artist who mixes styles with cleverness, conviction and earnest curiosity. At a time when rock comes in one basic flavor, Leroy gives us plenty to savor, blending bluesy guitar grit, hot buttered soul and brown sugary melodies to overwhelming effect. His soulful and electrified kitchen sink funk is built on a foundation of instantly accessible grooves and simple yet irrepressible pop melodies. Maybe that’s why almost six months before the album’s release, five of its songs were already in demand for use in film and television spots: “Good Time” will be featured in “The Job,” Denis Leary’s upcoming ABC sitcom, “New World” appeared in both 10 Things I Hate About You and its gold-selling soundtrack; “Trans Am” was featured in an episode of Felicity; “Make It Hot” can be heard in Chain Of Fools, an upcoming Warner Bros. film starring Salma Hayek and in the upcoming 20th Century Fox movie, Joy Ride, starring Leelee Sobieski.
Co-produced by Leroy and Rob Cavallo (Alanis Morissette, Green Day) and mixed by Jack Joseph Puig (No Doubt, Goo Goo Dolls) the eclectic disc binds the songwriter’s disparate influences-Carole King, Parliament Funkadelic, Elton John, Stevie Wonder and the Beatles-into a seamless and exotic singular sound.
“The album has a unique, fresh feel and people are responding to that,” says Leroy. “This is a record that has it all-old school funk, hip-hop, rock, gospel, blues, country-and it all works. I think folks are tired of hearing the same old thing and bands that all sound alike. I’ve had people listen to this record and describe it as a breath of fresh air.”
The album opens like an old Motown 45, hissing and crackling as it leads into the dense, feel-good funk of tracks like “Good Time,” “Be My Lover” and “Don’t Look Back.” The latter actually starts off with a de-tuned sample from Mary Poppins before kicking into a thick, nasty groove.
“Trans Am,” which Leroy wrote about a friend who uses materialism as a way to maintain relationships, and “The Way We Carry On,” a song about society’s sorry state of affairs, both pump with hip-hop beats and deep-fried Hendrix-like guitars. “Over You”-a track about recovering from dependency-was written around a sample of John Bonham’s drums from “When The Levee Breaks,” then replaced with live drums for the final recording. A multi-instrumentalist, Leroy created the majority of the album himself, bringing in friends toward the end to add layers and textures.
“My sound is a mixture of the past and the future,” he says. “I usually start with a funky hip-hop beat, then I add a bass line and guitar. I spice it up with various sounds and then I sing over it. I’ve written so many songs just on the guitar, but I got bored doing it that way. When I started getting into synthesizers and samplers, I was like, ‘yeah baby, I can create my own drum sounds.’”
On “Error of My Ways,” Leroy sampled-of all things-strings from his father’s 1953 high school orchestra. “I went home to visit my parents and found a box of my father’s old vinyl,” recalls Leroy. “I pulled out an album with a plain white cover and my father said, ‘Hey, your old man’s on that one.’ I told him I was gonna sample it and put it on the record, and it came out amazing. He couldn’t believe the things you can do with a sampler.” Laughs Leroy, “After hearing the song he’s like, ‘Maybe I’ll call the guys from the orchestra and put the band back together.’”
A native of Spokane, Washington, Leroy grew up to a soundtrack of Buddy Miles, Santana, Jimi Hendrix and Elton John-albums his parents had in heavy rotation. “They were always playing music and exposed me to different sounds at an early age,” he says. “They also took me to concerts. I remember going to see Kiss at age 8 with my brother and my parents. My dad was there in the suit he wore to work and someone handed him a joint. He looked at it like, ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’
“My father played trombone and wanted to be an actor, but he never pursued his dreams because he had to support us. So when I started doing something creative, he was totally into it because it was a chance for him to live vicariously through me. I actually wanted to play bass at first, but he suggested I learn guitar. I quickly found out that the guitarist gets all the girls and stayed with it. Years later, when I told him I was moving to Los Angeles to pursue music, he was totally supportive and that’s always meant a lot to me.”
Leroy migrated to Tinseltown in the early ’90s, hoping to “hit the big time within two years.” Says the singer-songwriter, “I was pretty naïve, but I never gave up.” During that time, Leroy paid some labor-intensive dues, working ten-to-twelve hour workdays pumping gas and installing cable TV for little pay. His evenings were capped off by hole-in-the-wall-gigs that earned him even less. When he wasn’t playing or writing, he was planning his next move. He found light at the end of the tunnel when he signed to Hollywood in early 1999.
“I knew it was gonna be tough going in,” says Leroy, “But I was determined to never quit. I figure if you want something, you should go get it. If it takes your whole life to get there, fine-at least I’d die knowing I did what I wanted to. Deep down, I’m still that kid from Spokane and I’m still excited by the thrill of playing music. Nothing else comes close.”